Consciously BEing AWE .
At the end of our Engaging with the Power of AWE Awefair closing ceremony zoom call, Carol Ann Ryan saw each of 7 billion plus humans receiving an AWE chocolate from a box of chocolates a la Forrest Gump..... with the message 'AWESOME is as AWESOME does'.
She put into words the phrase that had been hovering around me for a week.
But in addition to doing AWEsome things, the other part of experiencing Awe in your life is Being AWE. How do you do that? It’s more than being awesome. If you reflect on how we are One Source Energy and unique aspects of the One Source, then the answer begins to reveal itself.
BEing is on the other end of the spectrum of doing. It requires no effort. It is living as the I AM presence. Take a few moment to contemplate this if you unfamiliar with this concept and it doesn’t intuitively resonate. Feel free to ask questions on the Divine You Facebook page.
A couple of aspects occurred to me as I got into the flow of Day 3’s theme of the AWEfair which was BE AWEsome. The first was - How often do you want experience AWE, and the second was How can you shift from your current Awe Set Point?
How often do you want experience AWE?
The AWE Spectrum: As I’ve been sharing my passion for finding awe in the everyday with people who unwarily ask me what I’ve been doing lately, I’ve found an interesting variety of perceptions of what Awe is and how they experience it.. It spreads across a range of Awe Occurrences from:
1. Rare Sublime Numinous AWE.
2. Biweekly Awe (Awe Project) and
3. Everyday Awe (Awe Principle)
1. Perhaps the most common association with awe is the deep mystery, passion and wonder, the experiences that make life worth living. Albert Einstein said “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
This is the AWE that Ruldolph Otto, theologian and philosopher from the 1920’s labeled as "the numinous mysterium-tremendum-et-fascinans: The spiritual overwhelming mystery and potent majesty before which man both trembles and is fascinated, charmed and attracted. The awe inspiring, transcendent…. experiences of grace and divine love. ….
The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant, until at last it dies away and the soul resumes its “profane,” non-religious mood of everyday experience. . . . it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of—whom or what? In the presence of that which is a Mystery - inexpressible and above all creatures.”
That’s definitely an awe evoking description.
2. There’s new research from the U of California Berkley’s Awe Project which suggests that people experience awe more commonly than would be generally expected.
Amie Gordon gathered people’s daily reports of awe for two weeks and found that it is surprisingly common in everyday living. Every third day, people feel that they are in the presence of something vast that they do not immediately comprehend. For example, seeing gold and red autumn leaves pirouette to the ground in a light wind; being moved by someone who stands up to injustice; and hearing music on a street corner at 2 AM all elicited such an experience. Intriguingly, each burst of daily awe predicted greater well-being and curiosity weeks later.http://www.slate.com/…/essays-and-op…/dacher-keltner-opinion
3. Then there’s everyday awe. “The Awe Principle. ” I stumbled across this fascinating term that is a fairly close match to how I experience AWE. Craig Hatkoff asks “Can I find awe, wonder and enchantment in the most mundane things conceivable”? And yet I would add, by experiencing them as deeply AWE-full they cannot be mundane.
For me, it’s what I love experiencing as I go about my daily routine…. driving, writing for one of my three website blog posts and my fantasy novel, visiting my 95 year old mom who is thriving with dementia, creating consciousness with infinite humans, scrolling thru social media feeds.
Of course I have an intention to experience awe in everything and that’s what the Universe provides. Even though it’s an everyday occurrence, the feeling it engenders is still intense. My heart leaps and beats faster. My body feels as if it’s expanding. My senses are heightened. Colours become more intense, smells yummier, sounds sweeter. My eyes sometimes mist as I connect with the Oneness of the Creator and know I’ve co- created the ecstasy.
Soleria Green AWE inspiring author, coach and co-founder of the Visionary Network also lives in everyday awe. She describes her experience of AWE as a “daily ongoing excited, exhilarated, ultra state of heightened awareness, vibrant well-being, wonderful connection and rich appreciation of everything around me. It's a power for Life that courses through my veins and ripples into the reality around me. The more I'm in this state, the more awesome things seem to happen to me without any effort on my part.”
Another friend (who loves me even though I experience life from a more intuitive energetic perspective, less logical than she), surprised me a bit when she shared how she quietly finds awe in the flowers, sun and life around her. She said it was sad that many younger people who are focused on being materially successful and advancing in their careers miss out on seeing the awe in everyday life.
And my massage therapist coined an acronym for AWE. Authentic White Energy, representing the true highest frequency experience as opposed to manufactured wanna-be awesome.
So there you have it. The AWE Spectrum. Of course you can flow from one part of the spectrum to another as you desire. You can have it all, the three parts aren’t mutually exclusive.
There is quite a bit of fascinating research from students and faculty of respected institutions including University of California Awe Team at Berkleys Greater Good Science Center and Stanford that indicate experiencing awe regularly is good for your physical, mental emotional and social/community health. 1-9** That’s why I’m advocating for ensuring you include finding and deeply feeling AWE in the everyday.
Do You Want to Re-set Your Awe Set Point?
You probably have an awe set point. A set point is a frequency or the point at which a variable such as awe tends to stabilize. Your awe set point establishes when you are notice something that will elicit an AWE response. So you may want to consider if you are happy with where your current set point is and decide what part of the AWE Spectrum you primarily wish to establish your AWE Set Point on.
If the idea of living by the AWE Principle (seeing the awe in the everyday commonplace) intrigues you, I think you can begin to live in the Awe flow easily and effortlessly.
Establishing a new Awe Set Point is like any habit:
1. Get into the highest conscious frequency of bliss or extreme gratitude.
2. Think of something that creates a feeling of awe in your body. If your cells don’t already respond immediately from their memory of awesome experiences, then expand and exaggerate the sense of awe until you are acutely aware of your particular body sensations. Ask your cell memory to embed this feeling deep within themselves.
3. Set an intention that you will be triggered to experience awe at an everyday, or more magnificent level based on the AWE spectrum.
4. Release that intention as an order to the universe just as if you were ordering from Sears or Amazon.
5. If you’d like to use more than one energetic paradigm to establish the habit,( i.e repeat the reminder frequently to your neural pathways until it becomes as routine as breathing)
- get a wide rubber band from a stationary store, write ‘AWE’ on it and wear it around your wrist. (You might want to sweet talk your postal worker, ...mine has a supply she wraps around the mail to keep it sorted.) AND/OR
- set an awe chime on your phone.
6. Expect Awe to leap out from behind tall bushes or surprise you when you least anticipate it. I’ve found that expectation is equally as important as intention. And deep feeling is another key aspect to experiencing and BEing AWE.
There is more to Consciously BEing AWE, and it’s easy and effortless. Today’s blog is just a beginning point. What would you add???
I hope you will choose to make Consciously BEing Awe part of your daily Divine You living practice. I know everyone who engages with the Divine You Blog and Facebook page would be uplifted and energized by hearing your insights and experiences about any aspect of AWE. So please share in the comments below or on The Divine U Facebook page
AWE Research 1-9 **
Social, Physical, Emotional, Relationships Benefits
http://consciouslifenews.com/incredible-benefits-feeling-awe/11120374/
Clinically increasing compassion and empathy and promoting well being]": . http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/study-awe-inspiring-experiences-change-our-perception-of-time/260138/
Long term Effects include Greater Well Being and Curiousity
https://www.calprojectawe.org/surveys
Biological and Emotional Benefits of AWE -
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2014-6-november-december/feature/science-awe
Social Benefits
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_awe_makes_us_generous
Mental Benefits
http://www.slate.com/bigideas/why-do-we-feel-awe/essays-and-opinions/dacher-keltner-opinion
http://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/aaker/pages/documents/timeandawe2012_workingpaper.pdf
The biological advantage of being awestruck. Wall Street Journal
Jason Silva refers to this as our ability to awe was biologically selected for by evolution because it imbues our lives with sense of cosmic significance that has resulted in a species that works harder not just to survive but to flourish and thrive...
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703858404576214771893335998
Intellectual Effects
If the following research on positive moods could be extrapolated to AWE, then it would be fascinating to develop a research project to demonstrate this hypothesis. In fact there are studies that show increased mental clarity and more....
Shawn Achor describes in his book The Happiness Advantage, a recent scientific study showed that doctors who are put in a positive mood before making a diagnosis consistently experience significant boosts to their intellectual abilities than doctors in a neutral state, which allows them to make accurate diagnoses almost 20% faster.
Spiritual / Metaphysical Effects of Awe /Transcendence
http://www.slate.com/bigideas/why-do-we-feel-awe/essays-and-opinions/graham-estes-opinion
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